Chapter 4- The Cardkey
“Dad…..” Taylor opens the front door to her father’s house with her key then starts to yell for him as the smell from the kitchen leads her to the back of the house. She finds him sitting at his kitchen counter looking at a website she doesn't recognize on his IPad. She tries to look over his shoulder to see what he’s looking at and he closes the screen.
“I’m angry with you ole man.” She tells him as she takes the seat next to him and pulls the IPad from his hands trying to see what he was looking at. It looked like a gossip website and she can’t imagine that he would be interested in something like that.
“Yeah, I can see that.” He says dryly, gently removing her fingers from his IPad taking it back and turning it off.
“How….why….wait, did you expect me to be angry with you?” She ask him squinting her eyes.
“Maybe.” He takes a swig from a bottle of beer sitting on the counter then offers it to her.
“No thanks.” She frowns at him. “Dad, if you knew I was going to be angry with you, why didn’t you tell me that Mr. Donati isn’t the one that’s going to be CEO of La Croix’s.”
“Taylor, sweetheart, Mr. Donati is CEO. It’s just not the Mr. Donati you expected it to be.”
“I didn’t remember about a younger Donati. You didn’t tell me about his adult son.”
“Sweetheart, you know Alberto has children. You met them when we vacationed in Italy don't you remember he has a son and a daughter. Santo grew up just like you did, in the family business and he’s quite good at what he does.” Julian finishes off his beer and pushes the bottle away.
Taylor gets up from her seat and walks over to the refrigerator. Opening the door she gets her step-father another bottle of beer then walks it back and sets it on the counter in front of him. “What exactly does Mr. Donati the son do?”
The way Santo yelled at her today, Taylor thought she was about to lose her job. She is sure he can rebuild the company but will it look like La Croix. There’s gossip around the office that he’s going to get rid of several employees and close some of their shoe stores. Julian doesn’t seem to be concerned about any of it but he needs to tell her how much of the gossip is true.
Julian doesn’t look her way but smiles to himself at her interest in Santo while he opens his beer. He’s relieved she broke up with Nathan. He knew of Nathan’s lothario habits and never liked him, but he was afraid to push too hard against him for fear of losing her.
“Santo fixes companies, Taylor. He takes companies on the brink of failure and makes them whole. He’s become very successful on his own. He’s also single and only 30 years old you know.”
“No I didn’t dad and I didn’t ask that.” She rolls her eyes at him.
He squeezes her hand while smirking at her. “I know you didn’t, but I think you should know something about him. You’re going to be working closely together since I’m not going to be there. Are you staying for dinner?” Getting up from his chair he doesn’t wait for her reply, going over to a cabinet he pulls out two plates.
“What are you having?” Taylor leaves her chair and goes over to the stove to open the oven. “Ooooh! Lasagna, I’m staying.” She says licking her lips. Taylor looks into another cabinet drawer and pulls out cutlery and napkins for them. Opening the fridge again, she grabs a pitcher of tea, pulls a glass from another cabinet and pours herself some tea.
YOU ARE READING
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